Life Wide Open

My accountability partner and I are going through “Life Wide Open” by David Jeremiah. The book is about living a passionate life. Although we have only read through two chapters, I have been inspired to evaluate and reflect on several areas of my life. “All too rarely do we meet Christians who are equally passionate about ALL of life.” I find it interesting (and sad) that many people (including myself) have segmented their passion. Some are passionate about serving in church but not outside of church. Some are passionate about watching sports but not play sports. Some are passionate about pursuing physical health but not spiritual or emotional health. Some are passionate about building stronger fellowship in church but put little effort to get to know their neighbors or coworkers. Do we choose what we want to be passionate about in life? If God was the source of our passion, does this mean we choose to put God in specific segments of our lives?

Here are more quotes for reflection…
“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.” (Quoting Jack London).
“To find the passion you seek, you must be passionate about seeking.”
“God alone is the source of true passion for all you do in life.”
“Passion is the inner spark, provided by God’s Spirit, that ignites you to live out your God-given purpose.”

Thanks Alice :)

Student Quotes

What happened in the classroom...
Student 1: "What? You mean we have to do homework at home?" (Yes, that's why it's called homework...)
Student 2: "Just like parachute, balled up boogers drop faster than flat boogers. It's true, I experimented it in my brother's coke." (I guess your analogy is somewhat scientific...)
Student 3: "Mr. Miyai!" (When did I become a Mr.?)
Student 4: "I don't get this Avocado's # thing." (You mean Avogadro's #?)
Student 5: "You said we were supposed to hide under our desk during an earthquake, but I'm too big, I can't fit!" (At least cover you head. If you must, I guess you'll have to carry your desk then...)
Student 6: "The unit for surface area is grams." (huh?) "I mean cubic centimeter." (let's try again...)

Yay! It's Friday!

I'm so happy it's Friday! It has been so busy trying to be a student and a teacher at the same time. Since school started in August, this is the summary of my weekdays - spent mornings student-teaching, afternoons back in Davis for classes, and evenings preparing for next day's lesson and grading. Weekends are usually when I get to catch up with sleep, people, and more homework!

I can't believe October is almost over.
10/2 weekend -
* Went wedding gown shopping with Amy in Concord - that was a lot of fun, brought back good memories :)
* Kim came by Sacramento for her review class, and we got a chance to hangout and eat together.

10/9 weekend -
* Caroline spent the whole weekend with us! She drove up after work on Friday, and we celebrated her birthday (belated).
* On Saturday, we drove to Reno for the annual Italian Festival. It was so much fun. There were pasta sauce cook-off, grape stomping contest, bocce ball tournament, and live music and entertainment. We spent most of the time going from booth to booth to try out free pasta sauce :) I was so full at the end of the day.

10/16 weekend - (mom's birthday!)
* Went to P Dan & family's appreciation dinner. It was sooooo neat to see the body of Christ join together to appreciate His faithful servants. And it was good to catch up with the Cannan folks.
* Had dinner with some of my Nvidia coworkers :)
* Spent the whole weekend at CSTA (California Science Teacher Association) conference in San Jose. I got so much FREE posters, softwares, and information for my future classroom! I also attended some neat (and nerdy) science seminars and saw a couple cool lab demos.
* The conference kept me so busy all weekend, and I didn't get a chance to have pearl milk tea while I was in the southbay... (Can you believe that?!)
* While I was in San Jose, Andy H. spent the whole weekend with Tomio (and Oski). I met up with them on Sunday in Davis, and got the pearl milk tea that I was craving for all weekend :)

Done with finals!

Woohoo...just finished my last final on Wednesday! Sorry for the lack of posts.

So...anyways...I was studying for micro this past Tuesday at the Starbucks in West Sacramento when a guy in slacks & a blazer walks in, looks around the store then makes a call on his cell phone. About 3-4 minutes later, 5-6 guys similarly dressed, walk in and go to the counter to order coffee. At this point I'm thinking it's just a bunch of businessmen coming in to get some coffee and talk shop. But then I notice that the initial guy who walked in is still just standing at the door and when the guy turned his head I saw he had one of those earpiece things that the secret service guys wear. My curiousity now peaked...I'm wondering who are these guys who just walked into Starbucks. I lean over to see past the display of coffee tins to see...(guess)...could it be a movie star...maybe a politician...how about both???? Yes...it was our one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger...the GOVERNATOR!

Ahhh...the perks of living in West Sac...the heat, the bugs, running into famous stars/politicians, etc...(don't you wanna come & visit???)
...and no - didn't get his autograph or get to shake his hand or anything...
nobody in the Starbucks really went up to him or said anything (i think they were all in shock)...but the minute he left just about everyone busted out their cell phones to tell their friends.

First day of school

In response to Bob's request for more posts, I'll share/journal about my first day of student teaching in high school.
Yes, I survived first day of school. I attended a 9th grader general science class as well as chemistry classes. Both were very interesting. Students were more well-behaved than I had imagined. But then I've been told that they are just getting used to the new environment, it will get noisier as the week progresses.
What surprised me about the school is its diversity. I have had to look up people and religious groups in order to learn more about them. Did you know that Sacramento is the most diverse city in the United States? I didn't know that until this summer! And this definitely shows in the school.
My greatest challenge for the week is to memorize the students' names. We'll see how that goes...

Trip to Taiwan

I had two weeks of break before school started, so I visited dad and mom in Taiwan for 10 days (Sam was there too!). Dad took 10 days off from work to play with us, we spent a lot of family time together. Ate a lot - breakfast foods, sticky tofu, shaved ice and LOTS more (YUM!). Shopped, met up with friends and some coworkers from Taiwan office. It was a GOOD trip and 10 days passed by so quickly.

It's good to be back in Sac. Tomio and Oski did well while I was gone :)

Grad school and student teaching are starting next week. Had grad school orientation most of the afternoons this week. Spent all mornings this week in the high school that I will be student teaching at this coming year, and helped to prepare the classrooms and lessons plans. Based on what I have heard and observed so far of the high school, this is going to be an interesting, exciting, and challenging year...

Last day of work

Today's my last day of work... I'm kind of sad to leave... I felt so blessed in the past 4 years to work at Nvidia. It's been amazing how God has prepared the way. God is faithful :)

I'm looking forward to visit mom & dad in Taiwan, Sam's going to be there too!

Play at Alice's work

We spent many weekends at Alice's work. While we waited for Alice to finish with her work, Tomio read his books. Since I can't play fetch in the office, I just slept...

July recap

July was a busy month with full time summer school and work. Couldn't have gone through it without God's grace and Tomio's help. We managed to play on some of the weekends...

First weekend of July -
Canaan folks came over for white water rafting. It was so good to see familiar faces. It reminded me of how much I miss Canaan community and fellowship.

Second weekend of July -
Went to Nvidia to pack up my cube. Yes, it is time. My last day will be 8/6. But I packed up my cube earlier so my replacement would have a clean cube when she came on board. And since I work from home most of the summer, I don't really need my cube. I will definitely miss my neighbors (Karen's sneezes, Caroline's laughs...etc). I can't believe how much junk were accumulated over the past 4 years. But with Karen, Andrea, Bob, Tomio, and Oski's help, I finished packing my cube in a couple of hours! (Thanks to Karen, Andrea, and Bob for coming by!)
We went to on a picnic at Memorial Park later that evening. Here are some photos of the day~




Third weekend July -
Fred (Tomio's med school friend) and Sarah came over for dinner on Friday night. I made Korean food, but didn't realize that not everyone loves spicy food...
Tried to be a nerd for the rest of the weekend

Last weekend of July -
Saturday: Drove down to the southbay and worked most of the Saturday at the office. Went over to Joyce & Han's late afternoon with Karen, Andrea, and Caroline. All of us were hooked on bomberman for the rest of the day :) Andrea's got to be the most entertaining bomberman player to watch. Afterwards we went to Ariake for dinnner and got pearl milk tea!
Sunday: Andrea, Caroline, Tomio, and I got up at 5am and drove to Santa Cruz for the Wharf to Wharf 10K run. The weather was perfect and breezing, and the route was right along the beach. After the run, we rewarded ourselves by getting the "famous" tri-tip sandwiches (YUM)!

Oski...the world's greatest dog!!!

Quick update...
-tomio - knee is getting better, still swollen & stiff, but able to get around ok with crutches. thanks for all your prayers :)
-alice - pretty busy with school, work, and taking care of oski (& tomio) -please keep her in your prayers as well - thanks :)


-Now back to OSKI...THE WORLD'S GREATEST DOG!!!
For those of you who haven't met the furry ball of energy, Oski is the third member of the Miyai household. He is the most adorable yellow labrador retriever. Here's a picture of him when he was a puppy...


For those of you who went to Berkeley (go bears) you already know that Oski was named after the Cal mascot Oski the golden bear.

But do any of you know where Oski the Cal mascot got his name?

Oski, the bear, has been the official mascot of the university since 1941. Prior to then, Cal brought live mascots to the football games but, eventually, ran into some problems. After the 1940 season, it was decided that a costumed mascot would provide a less-troublesome and safer environment. The bear is named after the popular Cal yell “Oski Wow-Wow”, which goes like this: “Oski! Wow-Wow! Whisky! Wee-Wee! Olee Muckie-Eye! Olee Berkeley-Eye! California! Wow!”. Each year, the identity of the costumed bear is concealed and only the Oski Committee, which selects the individual, knows the true identity of the student underneath the costume.

Bonus points to the next person who comes over and performs the "Oski Wow-wow" cheer :)

Fourth of July Party!!!

Woof...woof...it's so hot outside...i'm so excited that people are coming over to visit!!!

Tomio gets a new ACL

Praise the Lord!!!
Yesterday's surgery went well and I now have a new ACL :)
They used my hamstring tendon (gracilus & semitendinosus) to form the new ligament.
(Since I'm stuck in bed with nothing to do - decided to start a blog page.)
A big thank you to all those who called, sent emails & prayed for me --> much appreciated